Wednesday, 21 February 2024

Bills

Education and Training Reform Amendment (Early Childhood Employment Powers) Bill 2024

Second reading

Debate resumed.

Gary MAAS (Narre Warren South) (14:55): Allow me to take our listeners back to a time before lunch when on this bill I was about to talk about the extraordinary work that our early childhood education and care workers do. They really are extraordinary, and while we may see this work that they do in terms of the everyday – stuff like training on the miniature bathrooms that they have in the classrooms – having in a previous role occupied a building with a childcare centre in it I was able to see just how extraordinary these educators are at being able to think of something like a fire drill, for instance, in a building and think that you are looking after children who may be six months old up to the age of six years old. When that fire alarm goes off, to see all those carers just swing into action and to be able to get those kids out in time safely and knowing that there would be a fair level of anxiety while that is occurring is just something to behold and believe me it is something to see.

Childhood educators are the backbone of our society. They educate our children – their development ‍– through skill attainment and learning and play; they are all the things they need to do for a good future. They make it possible so that parents can go to work and can continue to be able to build a life in society. Without them our society in Victoria truly could not function. And a quick shout-out to the United Workers Union as well, because I know that together with those early childhood education care workers they have been the driving force to indeed secure professional pay, dignity, respect and recognition for those workers. They are hard jobs, and they do deserve respect. I am very happy to see they are deserving of direct employment as well, and that will be a feature of these 50 new government owned and operated early learning centres.

The bill will empower the Secretary of the Department of Education to employ staff at early learning centres and enable the Minister for Children to make orders in relation to staff employment and payment of fees by parents of children enrolled in those centres. It is a part of the $14 billion Best Start, Best Life reforms. The Victorian government has committed to building 50 new government owned and operated early learning centres across Victoria to deliver that affordable child care, kindergarten and pre-prep. All of the centres will open between 2025 and 2028, and the 50 centres will be located where they are needed most, particularly in areas of significant childcare shortage and higher rates of disadvantage. Where possible – and this really is a fantastic thing that this government has been gratefully doing over the years – the centres will be co-located and integrated with schools, hospitals and TAFEs or other community services. This will increase parents’ and carers’ access to early learning and child care and subsequently increase workforce participation.

I was very happy to see as well that in the very near future in 2026 a primary school in my local community – well, actually the member for Narre Warren North’s community, but hey, what is 500 ‍metres and a primary school between friends, a level crossing removal between friends? I am very happy to see that Hallam Primary School, which is just outside of my electorate, will be getting one of these 50 government-owned childcare centres as well. That really is an incredible thing for our community where there is a shortage –

Belinda Wilson interjected.

Gary MAAS: Share and share alike. Correct, member for Narre Warren North. But there is some shortage there, and there is a need for this. There is a higher rate of disadvantage in the community too. The co-location will be a really fantastic thing to help support those children and to get them out of early learning. It will support their transition to school, and it will make it easier for families to access early learning programs and to avoid that double drop-off. These early learning centres will also provide additional infrastructure capacity in support of the rollout of three-year-old kindergarten and pre-prep. Co-location provides many benefits for families, including easier access to early learning programs; as I have already mentioned, simpler and more convenient drop-off times; and smoother transition between early learning programs and school for children.

This reform is a reform which builds on so many other early childhood education reforms that this government has made. We can just rattle them off here, but in particular we have got free kinder. It is well known that our government has made kinder free. The Victorian government’s $270 million free kinder initiative is available to all three- and four-year-olds enrolled in participating funded kindergarten programs. It saves families some $2500 in fees per child per year, which is much needed at this time when cost of living is much talked about. It also provides much-needed relief for family budgets and gives more women the opportunity to return to the workforce should they decide to.

Pre-prep is another initiative, and we continue to lead the nation in early childhood education and care by establishing pre-prep over the next decade, a new universal 30-hour-a-week program of play-based learning for four-year-old children. Again, it is part of that $14 billion Best Start, Best Life reform. In 2025 pre-prep is going to be commencing in quite a few regional areas throughout the state. It is really very, very important for our children’s development, and as I said at the beginning of this contribution, building a foundation for our children, our youngest Victorians, is in fact building a foundation for a very, very solid Education State here in Victoria. For these reasons, I commend the bill to the house.

Bridget VALLENCE (Evelyn) (15:03): I also rise today to contribute to the Education and Training Reform Amendment (Early Childhood Employment Powers) Bill 2024. What this bill seeks to do is to introduce 50 new childcare centres in areas where they are needed most, and of course childcare centres are absolutely required. These are places where our young ones get to learn, socialise, interact, play and get their first take on education. They are also places where parents are able to take their children to give them the opportunity to get back into the workforce. As a mum of two children, I had my children in early learning centres for many, many years. They absolutely loved it, and it meant that I was able, as a mum, to get back into the workforce, to contribute to my household income and to help build a better future for my kids and for our family. It also meant that they had the opportunity to make many social connections and start their learning journeys.

Early learning centres are an absolutely critical part of our education system, but the reality is that we have childcare deserts in many parts of the state. It is probably a little late, but finally the government is looking at meeting that challenge and introducing childcare centres in parts of the state where it has been very hard to get childcare centres up and running. However, I do note that of all of the 50 centres that the government has outlined they are targeting, there is not one earmarked for the electorate of Evelyn. So I just want to put on record that that is disappointing. However, we do have a number of wonderful childcare centres already operating in the electorate of Evelyn, and I pay tribute to all of the early childhood workers in our community for the work that they do looking after our precious children and giving them the best start in life.

There were not any allocated for Evelyn, but there was one allocated nearby to Evelyn, in Woori Yallock. That perplexes me, and we did ask questions about this in the briefing from the minister’s department, because Woori Yallock already has a great early learning centre operating, a not-for-profit early learning centre. Woori Yallock would not be classed as a growth area, and so it raises some questions. If the government seeks to introduce, as they have on the list, another early learning centre in Woori Yallock, what will that mean for the existing not-for-profit early learning centre? So we do have some serious questions about the modelling that the government has used in order to identify the list of 50, because I would hate to think for the community of Woori Yallock that the government will come in and set up a government-run childcare centre that would take staff and resources away from the existing not-for-profit one, and then the Woori Yallock community would have a net gain of zero when it comes to childcare centres. I hope that that is not going to be the outcome, but I think it is important to put on record the sort of modelling the government is doing when it identifies its lists for childcare centres.

But of course having early learning centres is so crucial for so many parts of our community. There is a desert when it comes to those in rural and regional Victoria. It is a challenge to get these up and running, and what we would like to see from the government is some more detail, some more meat on the bones. They are putting this legislation forward about early learning centres and in order to employ early learning centre staff, but they have provided no detail as to how they will actually meet the skilled workforce requirement to fulfil the obligations that they are setting forth in this legislation. This legislation is seeking to employ early learning centre and kindergarten staff, some 1200 we understand, to run these early learning centres, but the government has demonstrated zero information about how they will actually get that workforce in place. We have skills shortages right across every industry sector, but particularly in education and early childhood education. There is a skills shortage at the moment with the existing early learning centre framework that we have, so the government wants to introduce 1200 new workers, an admirable effort. However, it has demonstrated no plan on how it is going to reach that.

In the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee inquiry into the 2023–24 budget estimates, we did ask about skills shortages and in particular in education. Unfortunately we do not have a breakdown down to early childhood, but in education and training, there is a shortage of 41,000 workers in Victoria – by 2025 we will have a shortage of 41,000 workers in the education and training sector. You can only imagine, with the early childhood aspect of that, that that will be quite a significant number. In fact we understand from the Australian Childcare Alliance, which surveyed 600 childcare centres, that over two-thirds of them stated they had actually capped enrolments precisely because they were unable to recruit workers now, and that there are some 16,000 childcare places offline because there are not enough workers. Now, it is great to be able to open new childcare centres, but you have to have them staffed. They will not operate if there is no staff. You need the staff in place in order to get the childcare centres operating and the kids in there so that the parents can get to their places of work.

The qualifications to become an early childhood educator take four years of tertiary study. So given the fact we have a shortage now, even if there was any incentive program to get people into learning to become an early childhood educator, that is still going to take another four years. A lot of work would have to be happening right now to get those enrolments in place and those students to complete those courses to become early childhood educators to fill the gaps. I am quite concerned – and I hope this does not happen, but I am concerned – that this program of introducing new government childcare centres might cannibalise some of the existing workforce and it is not really going to address the skills shortage that we have in early childhood.

Another thing that was concerning about this bill – lest there be any doubt, we support the introduction of more early childhood learning centres into Victoria – was the fact that with this government it is all headline and no delivery. They have introduced this legislation to employ people into the early childhood learning space; however, they have not allocated a single cent to employing people. As we stand here today there is not a single cent allocated in any of the state government budgets to employ a single person. So this bill is about employing workers in this space, 1200, but there is not any money allocated. I mean on basic estimates that is probably going to be $100 million annually of operating costs to employ these staff, yet this budget is silent on that. There is not a cent in the budget when it comes to employing these staff. We do have a budget coming up in May and perhaps the government might start scrambling and make sure there is an entry in there, but we do know that under the Allan Labor government Victoria is broke. They are struggling to pay their existing public sector workforce now with a public sector wages bill at some $38 billion. It makes you wonder how they are actually going to afford to deliver on this commitment.

I would love to see more early childhood centres open, operating, full of staff and full of children so that mums like me can get back into the workforce, but if they cannot get the workforce, they have outlined no plan to get that workforce and they have not allocated any money in the budget to pay that workforce, some serious questions have to be answered by the Allan Labor government because they are scant on the detail when it comes to that.

Just in the very short time remaining, we have wonderful early childhood centres in the Evelyn electorate, but I want to pay particular tribute to the fairly new Coldstream early years kinder, which was set up next to Coldstream Primary School. It is doing really well and servicing many families in my community.

Paul HAMER (Box Hill) (15:13): I too rise to contribute on the Education and Training Reform Amendment (Early Childhood Employment Powers) Bill 2024, which will amend the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 to provide for the employment of persons at government early learning centres. It always is a great pleasure to speak about the early childhood policy in this state because the Allan government and the Andrews government before that have made huge contributions to the early childhood education sector. As members from both sides have said, it is so essential for the development of our youngest Victorians to be able to have access to education from such a young age. There is a lot of evidentiary proof to show that the educational outcomes and the outcomes for those who have gone through early education are far improved. That is not to discount also all the other social impacts that early childhood education has, particularly for parents who otherwise would not be able to get back into the workforce.

These are far-reaching policies, and I am really proud to have been a member of a government that has introduced such a comprehensive range of policies. I hope to go into some of the details of those policies later in my contribution, but I do want to focus on the context of the bill, which is about providing the framework for the employment of staff and the conditions of that employment for people who are employed in government early learning centres. It has previously been announced by the government that we will be introducing 50 new early learning centres as part of the Best Start, Best Life reforms. We do not have any of these early childhood centres in the Box Hill electorate because they have been targeted in areas where the demand is the greatest, both in terms of supply and access but also in terms of where the economic need is greatest. We are really blessed in the Box Hill electorate to have some amazing early childhood centres. We have a very large workforce population where both parents work, and having these childcare services is really essential for the working families of Box Hill in addition to providing that much-needed start to the education journey for the children.

There are many early childhood centres to single out in Box Hill, but I particularly want to acknowledge the Box Hill North Primary School Kindergarten. This is a kindergarten that was started almost 30 years ago. It was one of the first, if not the first, in the state to see the benefits of co-locating a kinder on a school site. These reforms and the sites that have already been identified and selected for some of these new programs are exactly that – they are co-located generally with primary schools but sometimes on other school sites, not only because that is the availability of government land but also because the kinder program is three-year-old kinder and four-year-old kinder. Many parents will have more than one child, and once that child finishes kinder they will progress into primary school. Being able to have a primary school co-located with a kindergarten just makes that trip to school and trip to kinder that much easier for parents. Under the current leadership of the kindergarten director at Box Hill North Primary School kinder, Charlotte Tay, and the school principal, David Pelosi, they have created a very inclusive environment that combines the kinder program with the school program. It really integrates those two facilities. The kindergarten is right in the centre of the school. It is not separate – it is not considered apart from the school – it is actually a central component of the school. It is a key attractor for why parents will actually send their children to the primary school and send their children to the kinder, because they know they have got that continuity of service.

A couple of recent incidents come to mind. I was at the school a couple of weeks ago. They had their first assembly for the year, and they took the opportunity to have a Chinese Lunar New Year celebration at the school. It was the whole school assembly and also the kinder children. The kinder children came out and watched from the steps of the kinder. They were admittedly a little bit frightened by the lion dance. It was a little bit too noisy for them, but it was great to see that they are already taking part in the broader education and the broader school culture that exists there. This also extends to their language program. For many, many years Box Hill North Primary School has taught Japanese as a second language. A few years ago, as part of our early childhood language program, another initiative of this Labor government, that Japanese language program was actually extended to the four-year-old kinder class. So now children at that school and kinder are starting to learn a foreign language one year earlier, from their four-year-old kinder program, and if they continue at the school then they can continue that learning experience. As I mentioned earlier, there is very strong evidence to suggest that the earlier the learning of language and general education and learning experience starts, the better the educational outcomes are at the end of that education journey. So that is really an excellent example of how this system works and what we are striving to achieve across the state with some of our Best Start, Best Life reforms.

The member for Evelyn talked about the allocation of funding, and I want to remind those members opposite that this is part of a major funding package – $14 billion in our Best Start, Best Life reforms. This component that we are debating and discussing today is about necessary legislative reform that will enable these reforms to happen. This funding has been committed and will be rolled out over a period of years as the services are delivered. For example, if we look at the pre-prep announcement, working to provide up to 30 hours of a pre-prep year for four-year-old students, in 2025 – so it will not be until next year – the first pre-prep classes will start and that will be starting in selected regional areas. That will not roll out to metropolitan Melbourne for another few years, so you would not expect to see it in last year’s budget, but the funding was committed to as part of this overall funding package and it will be delivered, along with other reforms and other legislative reform that are required to ensure that these education initiatives take place. There is really so much to say and to like about the early childhood education reforms that we are making, and I commend the bill to the house.

Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (15:23): I always jump at the chance to speak on early childhood education, and in particular the Education and Training Reform Amendment (Early Childhood Employment Powers) Bill 2024. One of the 50 new government-owned early learning centres that we are talking about here is in Mildura. Mildura is a very, very large area, and was classified as a childcare desert in the Mitchell report that I have heard many members in this place speak about. There are many centres, both for-profit and non-profit, and places like Murray Valley Aboriginal Co-op that are run by those cooperative organisations, which are fantastic, and I will talk about MVAC a little bit later on. But when we say that there is one of these government-owned centres for Mildura, fantastic, but a little bit of guidance is needed on where it might be. Red Cliffs at the moment does not have a childcare centre at all. We talk about 52 per cent of regional Australians living in areas which are considered childcare deserts, so we are not unique in that situation, but that child care and early childhood education really enables greater workforce participation, particularly with women, as we know. But when we are also facing workforce issues right across the sector and in every sector in regional Australia, not to have one in Red Cliffs, where we were hoping that that centre would go, poses such an issue, particularly with a teacher shortage.

There are a number of schools in Red Cliffs, including Red Cliffs Secondary College, and it is 20 ‍minutes away from Mildura, so you can see where it is problematic if there are families that need to backtrack 20 minutes – depending on traffic it could be a 1-hour round trip – to take their children to child care for the day and then go to work. It is quite problematic, and it is just one of those commonsense solutions. The council have done a power of work around kindergarten and early childhood and day care in Red Cliffs, so that is one of those. Even though the entire electorate of Mildura has been identified as a childcare desert, Red Cliffs is particularly problematic for families and the workforce in that area. It is such a great little town. It is celebrating its centenary this year, which is fantastic, and there are all sorts of things going on, but the fact that there is not one childcare centre out there is quite alarming.

When we talk about staff, though – and again, we have seen this, and I have spoken about this plenty of times in this place as well – we had in 2019 the former Premier promising to build a childcare centre. That was done, but it has sat empty for 2½ years in a town called Charlton, a small town on the Calder Highway. It has sat empty because of a lack of workforce and because of a failure of the market. Their local government are trying to get out of the space. They do not have the resources to manage it. The private sector did not want to enter the market, so it was really 2½ years of trying to get an operator and then to find the workforce. That was the main issue, there was just no workforce. We can say that this bill will allow the government to employ 1200 staff, but where do they come from?

There are obvious needs, obvious commonsense requirements, for a different approach to how early childhood education is delivered in regional areas. I know often ‘regional’ will be considered as outer suburban areas of Melbourne perhaps. Then let us talk about rural. Let us talk about the north-west of the state along the border, where it is really difficult to get staff, to train them on the job. Their access to training can sometimes be difficult. But there have been great advances. Like I mentioned before, and as I have mentioned many times in this place, the Murray Valley Aboriginal Co-operative is where my two children attended day care from the time they were 12 months old. My youngest finished kindergarten there last year. I have quite consistent contact with the CEO and obviously the staff, and while I am speaking about it I should send a shout-out to the staff, without whom I would not have been able to work or do what I did while my kids were very, very young. The continuity of care is really important. Chelsea took care of my eldest when he went into day care and was still taking care of my youngest when he left. Staff members like Rhoda, like Chelsea, like Gabie and like Cara have really helped me raise my kids essentially and have helped our family operate in a really functional way. We have to thank them because they are amazing people, and what is great about that centre is that there are little nuances that allow on-the-job training because of the rural setting.

That centre was extended a couple of years ago. It is pretty much ‘You build it and they will come’, and they certainly do in droves, because the extension came and the kindergarten and the day care centre are now co-located. But because of the need there is a waiting list now of 18 months. At any time there are 15 to 20 children on that waiting list, and as soon as you extend or expand the facilities, they fill up. As much as we thank these amazing staff – and they are truly amazing – half the time they are not getting to take a lunchbreak because of the quotas that they have to meet, which are no different in regional centres, as they should not be. I am not in the sector, so I am not going to comment on the science around the safety. It is my children that are at stake, so we do not want to put them at any risk. But because of the quotas there is difficulty in getting staff to relieve them when there is someone off sick, and this can happen really suddenly.

In true form, I will tell you a little story. It was the end of last year and I was busy in the electorate. In fact I was 3 hours away, because from the top of my electorate to the bottom is about 4 hours. I was 3 ‍hours away in Wycheproof on this particular day when the diploma-qualified staff at the kindergarten fell ill, and you need someone onsite with a diploma. She fell ill, so the entire facility had to close down. I was 3 hours away. My husband was in South Australia because he works over there three days a week. I got a phone call saying, ‘We’re closing. The centre is closing because of illness. All children need to be picked up in the next half an hour.’ I was 3 hours away, so that was a problem. I started to panic. There is no real provision or flexibility in regional areas to cover things like that. Could those children have gone into the day care centre, the older child care centre? It would have been a great solution, because I was 3 hours away panicking. I was asking, ‘What do I do? I’ve got no-one that’s able to come and pick him up at lunchtime.’ So that was really problematic. This is where I talk about real reforms for rural areas and regional areas that allow that flexibility. In the city it is fine because you can grab staff from other centres and move people around, and that is great. When we are hours away from anywhere in really isolated areas it is a real problem.

But I commend the staff at all childcare centres in Mildura – I cannot mention Red Cliffs because there is not one there – in Robinvale and in Charlton, which is finally open, and all those teachers. In particular Abby Mulquiny has been a fierce advocate for that childcare centre and getting providers in, because she was desperate. As a teacher, she was so desperate to go back to work, and thankfully her gorgeous little Dulcie now has child care, and Abby is able to go back to teaching, which is fantastic all round. It is a great outcome. It just took too long.

So while we support, obviously, any expansion of early child care, because it does create amazing outcomes for our children going from early childhood into kindergarten and into school with that wonderful transition, there needs to be real reform for rural areas, because at the moment there are so many holes, and it just causes real anxiety with mothers like me that get caught out when technicalities in regulation become a real problem because of geography. It just should not matter. Postcodes should not matter. If we cannot get the same level of early childhood education, then our kids cannot either. Thanks to MVAC and thanks to childcare centres across the region. We thank you.

Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (15:33): I rise to speak in support of the Education and Training Reform Amendment (Early Childhood Employment Powers) Bill 2024. In my inaugural speech to Parliament, which was just over year ago now, I spoke about the ongoing commitment of the Victorian Labor government and my pledge as the local member for Pascoe Vale, Coburg and Brunswick West to work to continue lifting and improving access and outcomes for local children through early childhood education centres, and that is why I really am so proud to be part of the Allan Labor government, whose very first priority and task was to assemble a refreshed whole-of-government approach to supporting children and families through the creation of a new Minister for Children portfolio. This refreshed approach places children’s wellbeing, welfare and future life chances at the very heart of government decision-making and seeks to bring together the Victorian Labor government’s nation-leading investments and reforms under a central coordinating portfolio, which since 2014 has included of course quite a number of measures.

We have invested $14 billion to expand kindergarten programs across the state under Best Start, Best Life. We have invested to upgrade local kinders, including in my community of Merri-bek, and worked to establish 50 government owned and operated early childhood learning centres to address childcare shortages in areas of need across the state, including in Moomba Park in Fawkner, just north of my electorate, in the member for Broadmeadows’s seat. Where possible, we are seeking to co-locate new learning centres with schools to avoid the dreaded double drop-off for parents.

We have also been rolling out the game-changing $270 million free kinder initiative, which is now available to all three- and four-year-olds participating in eligible funded kinder programs. This groundbreaking initiative is providing a 15-hour-per-week program for four-year-old children and a minimum 5-hour-per-week program for three-year-old children who are attending participating kinders. Along with the educational, social and wellbeing dividends that free kinder is providing for three- and four-year-olds across the state, it is also playing a major role, as we know, in alleviating cost-of-living pressures for families. Free kinder is providing parents, carers and families up to $2500 off in fees per child, per year, providing much-needed relief for household budgets during this time. Free kinder is also acting as a women’s economic reform initiative, particularly for young mums, by encouraging women to re-enter the workforce through increased provision of early childhood education. I will touch on some local organisations that were trailblazers in this space quite soon.

As we continue to lead the nation in early childhood education and care, we will also establish pre-prep over the coming decade, which will be a new universal 30-hour-per-week play-based program for four-year-old children. These are all vitally important initiatives which will help play key roles in setting the foundations for a better life for young children. However, all these reforms would not be possible without our diligent, hardworking early childhood and kinder educators and workers, which this bill is all about today.

In Merri-bek I have got 10,378 residents – that is 11.7 per cent of our municipality’s workers – who are employed in the education and training sector, and a significant portion of those are employed as local early childhood educators and daycare workers. This bill will be of interest to a lot of them and hopefully more future teachers, who we are seeking to attract.

The bill will provide the state with the necessary legislative powers to operate government-owned early learning centres in Victoria, including, as I said, Moomba Park in Fawkner, just north of my electorate, whose catchment will be of interest to and support people to the north of my electoral boundary. The early childhood professionals who will teach, care and manage operations in these centres will be critical to their success. We know the biggest influence on quality early learning is our workforce and our valued early childhood teachers, educators and education leaders. These professionals really do hold some of the most important and sensitive jobs when it comes to Victoria’s future. That is why the model for their employment in government early learning centres is so important. This bill will enable the creation of a new Victorian government employed early childhood workforce.

The bill specifically seeks to do a number of things, including empowering the Secretary of the Department of Education to employ staff at government early learning centres to deliver the support and learning programs they need. It will enable fees to be fixed and charged to parents of children enrolled at government early learning centres, and it will also enable the minister to make orders setting out the fees to be paid for attendance at government early learning centres and the employment conditions for the government early learning centre workforce. The bill also does establish a modern, broad employment power for the secretary to employ persons across centres through a number of other measures that pertain to their employment contracts and ongoing management.

The bill builds on the government’s ongoing investments and commitments to continue supporting and growing the early childhood workforce, as set out in the Victorian government’s kinder workforce strategy. We have a dedicated strategy to attract and sustain the kinder workforce – unlike what those opposite are accusing us of – which is striving to strengthen the existing workforce and attract those new educators by working collectively with employers, unions, training organisations and local communities. Some of the key initiatives through this strategy have included $370 million being invested to attract high-quality teachers and educators to the sector and to support existing professionals. Since then we have attracted more than 4000 new teachers or new people enrolled in scholarships who have joined the kinder workforce through government-funded scholarships since October 2018. 1700 educators are also currently being supported to upskill. We are continuing to work to do more; we have to do more in this space too. We are expanding high-quality pathways to the sector through free TAFE courses, including a certificate III in early childhood education. We are supporting educators to upskill. We are supporting leadership to improve workforce wellbeing. We are focusing on training quality throughout the duration of one’s career, and we are trying to shift perceptions as well about a career in early childhood, including through campaigns such as Big Roles in Little Lives.

Finally, we are strengthening sector partnerships to improve place-based workforce strategies and innovation. It is this last point I would like to turn to in the context of the local organisations in my community who have long been doing tremendous work in leading the way and being trailblazers, like I said, when it comes to growing early childhood as a sector and its workforce. VICSEG New Futures is a not-for-profit community organisation that was first started to support new and recently settled migrants in 1981. In developing and implementing a range of programs over those years to provide direct support, assistance, advice and training to culturally and linguistically diverse communities living across the northern and western suburbs of Melbourne, VICSEG has gone on to successfully establish itself as an extremely successful registered training organisation that has delivered outstanding learning and employment pathway outcomes for migrant communities, particularly in the early childhood space.

With VICSEG New Futures head office and key training camp situated on Munro Street in the heart of central Coburg, in my electorate, VICSEG’s campuses and services now also extend to Braybrook, Epping, Craigieburn and Werribee, all of which collectively train over 3000 students annually. In doing so, VICSEG also operates four early learning centres for students to leave their children while they train, and to learn in, along with running 25 multicultural playgroups. VICSEG’s completion rate for training is well above the Victorian average for all community programs, and their training continues to remain very high in demand, with several of their programs having significant waiting lists. With a strong staff base, which now numbers 170 hardworking, diligent, committed staff, VICSEG is genuinely a one-of-a-kind, leading organisation that is absolutely dedicated to supporting newly arrived CALD communities through the provision of learning pathways, which are predominantly for women, supported by access to early childhood services, so they can learn to ascertain the skills and qualifications they need to build a new future for their families here in Australia.

I had the absolute pleasure of attending a VICSEG graduation ceremony on 23 November 2023 to celebrate the latest batch of multicultural women who had successfully graduated and will go on to work in health, aged care, disability support and early childhood roles, all of whom came from non-English-speaking backgrounds and many of whom arrived here as either refugees or asylum seekers. It was a very emotional ceremony indeed. I commend VICSEG executive director Maree Raftis, general manager Caspar Zika and all of the 170 staff and thousands of students for the work that they do to support and contribute towards growing the sector.

Prior to VICSEG, we had the Anne Sgro kindergarten and childcare centre. Situated at 45–47 May Street in Coburg, the centre was founded by its namesake Anne Sgro, who was actually my first Italian teacher at Coburg West Primary School as well. In the mid-1970s Anne Sgro co-founded the Women's Group of the Italian Federation of Migrant Workers and their Families. Anne has volunteered with the Union of Australian Women, joining in a campaign for women’s equality. More recently Anne of course served as a member on the Ministerial Advisory Council for Senior Victorians. The Anne Sgro Children Centre was created through the efforts of the women’s group, who value the ability of local working women to be given access to trusted local child care. What is so special about the centre is that Anne Sgro Children’s Centre was Victoria’s first work-related, whole-day childcare centre that involved workers, unions, community and government. A key to the original goals of the centre was to establish a work-related, reliable childcare resource for women, many of whom did work in the then surrounding textile factories and millineries. For the women working in the manufacturing precinct of North Coburg, many of whom were Italian migrants, child care was a much-needed service for the community. Many women could not rely on traditional family networks for the caretaker roles during their working day because many of their extended family had not migrated out at the time. The centre provided a crucial link and was opened in 1985, and Anne has done an absolutely tremendous job to this very day to support those opportunities.

I would like to conclude and commend this bill to the house by touching on the record $10.7 million that our government has invested into upgrading up to 11 local kinders across Merri-bek to create 329 ‍new kinder places, a record expansion of local kinder places to support our growing population of young families and parents who are moving to the area. In that context, I genuinely commend the bill to the house and look forward to its implementation over coming months.

Kim O’KEEFFE (Shepparton) (15:43): I rise today to speak and make a contribution on the Education and Training Reform Amendment (Early Childhood Employment Powers) Bill 2024. The bill is for an act to amend the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 to provide for the employment of persons at, or for the purposes of operating, government early learning centres and to consequently amend the Long Service Leave Act 2018 and for other purposes. The bill gives effect to the government commitment to open 50 new government-owned early learning centres by employing staff and setting charges and fees for parents. The bill comes off the back of the Victorian government’s Best Start, Best Life reforms, where the government has committed to building 50 new government owned and operated early learning centres across the state to deliver child care, kindergarten and pre-prep. The Education and Training Reform Act 2006 will enable fees to be fixed and charged to parents of children enrolled in early childhood education and care in government early learning centres. Division 2 of part 2A.2 of the bill sets out fees for services and other matters of government learning centres.

Every family has a right to quality education and care services. It is important for every child and their parents, carers and communities to have the support they need. We know that the first few years of a child’s life play a significant and critical role in their learning development. That is when the foundations for the future are laid. The lack of centres, available places and staffing shortages is having a significant impact on communities and those seeking child care. Regional communities are being disadvantaged. As the member for Euroa passionately pointed out, there is a significant shortage in regional Victoria. A major concern is the fees: 50 hours of centre-based day care in Victoria is around $626 a week. This is the highest cost of any state in the nation, and for many this is beyond their ability to afford. In addition, out-of-pocket childcare costs for Victorian parents for centre-based day care after subsidies were the equal highest in the nation across all but one income level. Victorian families and constituents right across my electorate know that the costs of child care are continuing to grow and becoming a significant barrier to accessing this critical service. We also have a significant waiting list.

With the significant increases in the cost of living, rising interest rates and households trying to make ends meet, affordable and accessible child care is becoming harder. Children deserve to have the best start in life, and we need to support parents’ return to the workforce in a way that they can afford and that works for them and the needs of their families. We must have a process in place that gives choice for parents in quality and affordable child care and education for all Victorian children.

Strong foundational skills in early years are vital to every child’s future and education. As a former business owner and a working mother when I was raising my two daughters, the availability and cost of child care played a significant role in the opportunity for me to go back to work. However, even back then there was still a significant out-of-pocket cost which impacted significantly on our income. I know families who are struggling to cover the cost of child care or cannot get a place at a centre. I know a young mother who makes very little after paying her part-time child care, but she wants to stay active in her current workplace. She enjoys the interaction outside of the home and she also wants her only child to mix with other children in a positive environment. There are many who cannot access child care. Lack of access to child care takes almost 27,000 women entirely out of the workforce in Victoria and costs our economy about $1.5 billion per year in lost earnings.

The early learning and childcare sector is plagued by a severe workforce shortage. In 2023 the Australian Childcare Alliance surveyed over 600 childcare centres, and over two-thirds of them said that they had capped enrolments because they were unable to recruit enough workers. They estimate they will need some 700 educators and over 100 teachers, not to mention the dozens of centre directors, admin support and in-house staff that will be required. The government has no plan to increase workforce capacity to support the new government-run early learning centres without taking away from existing centres.

Under Labor, childcare and school costs are rising, with Victorian childcare centres now the most expensive in Australia. Child care is a very low-paid industry. I have a friend who works in child care, and she sees firsthand the battle to get trained staff and then to retain them. Families with a child starting in 2024 will pay more than $108,000 for 13 years in Victorian state schools. This is 17 per cent higher than the national capital city average and more expensive than in Sydney. In addition, the total cost of government education in regional and rural Victoria will be close to $80,000 over 13 ‍years. Furthermore, schools right across state are experiencing teaching shortages, as we know, with many schools without teachers, an issue that is having a significant impact on the learning outcomes of students and causing significant disruption in Victorian classrooms, especially in regional and rural schools across the state. Nine in 10 government school principals have declared teacher shortages across the state.

The bill discusses how the Secretary of the Department of Education may employ persons in the government early learning centre workforce. The secretary may employ any persons that are necessary to operate government early learning centres, and in addition the secretary, on behalf of the Crown, has all the rights, powers, authorities and duties of an employer in respect to employees in the government early learning centre workforce. The minister may declare the terms and conditions of employment in the government early learning centre workforce, including salaries, wages and allowances; position classifications and duties of persons employed in the government early learning centre workforce; eligibility and suitability criteria for employment in the government early learning centre workforce; qualifications or experience necessary for appointment, transfer or promotion to any position, class or grade in the government early learning centre workforce; the processes of the recruitment and selection of persons employed in the government early learning centre workforce; conduct requirements and processes for the discipline and management of unsatisfactory performances of persons employed in the government early learning centre workforce; grounds for a termination of employment in the government early learning centre workforce; and any other matter necessary to provide for the employment of persons in the government early learning centre workforce.

The Allan government must address the ever-increasing costs of early childhood. Affordable and accessible child care supports parents to return to the workforce in a way that works for them. It is wrong that this should cost parents more in Victoria than it does anywhere else in the country. Victorians already know the costs will continue to grow, and they are becoming a significant barrier to accessing this critical service. The government needs to do more and needs to act now to support families in Victoria. The coalition supports measures to increase supply of childcare and early learning places, but it is vital any moves in this space are carefully considered and precisely implemented to ensure they do not distort the market. I thank the member for Kew as the lead speaker, and I support the reasoned amendment.

Paul EDBROOKE (Frankston) (15:50): It is fantastic to be here and to speak on the Education and Training Reform Amendment (Early Childhood Employment Powers) Bill 2024. I note we have got some champions up in the gallery today too, who are probably from a local school. We have heard from other people in the chamber today who support this bill without amendment, and they have spoken about the fact that this bill is really the next step in the delivery of the 50 government owned and operated early learning centres, which was a commitment from the 2022 election.

I must confess that, like some other members on this side of the house, I do have a teaching background. I miss teaching a lot. I loved working with kids. They probably taught me more than I taught them at times, but I had a lot of fun.

A member: You’re working with kids now.

Paul EDBROOKE: Well, that is a fact. But today I think we can actually show and role model good behaviours in Parliament for the people that are up in the gallery as well, which is very, very important.

Part of the reason I was very excited about this announcement probably has not been spoken about too much today. The bill is about providing the state Department of Education and the secretary with the necessary legal powers to operate the 50 government owned and operated early learning centres by making some amendments to the Education and Training Reform Act 2006. We have all heard about that. But from my perspective as a qualified primary school teacher, secondary school teacher and specialist school teacher, I am all about talking about early diagnosis. We have heard many people talk about how kids’ minds are sponges and the earlier you can get them into education, the better outcomes there will be. In the same frame, we have got to think about the fact that there are many things that impede a child’s learning – they might be social, they might be economic, they might be health related. Early diagnosis of any issues about how a child learns and how we need to change the way we teach is very, very important. Some of those things that might impede a child’s learning if not diagnosed early are ADHD, the autism spectrum and dyslexia – the four types of dyslexia that I am aware of. With these things – and I have witnessed it myself – it is a lightbulb moment when a child receives a diagnosis, their family acts on that and they receive adequate treatment or therapy for that diagnosis.

It could be as easy as a program like Glasses for Kids in schools, which this government obviously funded. Seeing a child who is positioned up the front of the classroom and who still cannot read the writing on a board or a smartboard or a TV suddenly get diagnosed with an eye condition where there is a simple solution – they get free glasses through the former Andrews and now Allan government; it is still running – all of a sudden that child’s learning, whether it be in mathematics or any other subject, just skyrockets because we have seen and diagnosed this problem very early. We are seeing the same on the autism spectrum, especially with young women. Young women are often not identified as quickly as boys with autism, and the older they get, the harder it is to actually diagnose and see some of those symptoms that people with autism might display, if you would use the word symptom – behaviours maybe. The studies from especially the United States show that the earlier you can treat some of those symptoms and behaviours, the more successful that child will be in school, in social settings and in their whole adult life.

We can extrapolate this out to say that one of the most important things that is not really being talked about but is a huge benefit of this legislation, which enables us to deliver these 50 government owned and operated early learning centres, is actually something that I think is very obvious but not talked about that much. That is probably the number one issue I think we have in this nation. Certainly Professor Bessel van der Kolk in the US says it is their number one issue, and that is child abuse. We can all sit here and say we know a child that has been through that or families who might have been through that or kids that have been to school with our kids that have been through that, but again it is something that we can identify early and intervene in early with the right kinds of interventions. Treating traumatic stress or preventing traumatic stress is really the number one influencer or predictor of the future of a child and the adult they will become. The more thoroughly we can do that in an early learning setting, the better. That even goes to things like intergenerational trauma as well. Today we have heard a lot of people talking about the education part of this, but there is a pastoral part of this. There is another part of it that is about community and social welfare as well.

I heard the member for Mordialloc say something when I was in the chair the other day and I thought, ‘That is something I agree with wholeheartedly.’ It seems very strange to me, very peculiar, that you might come into this house and say that you actually support a bill but you put an amendment forward. To me that means you are not supporting the bill. That people might not support the establishment of 50 new early learning sites across Victoria I find very frustrating. It makes me angry actually, because what you are really doing is putting a speed bump in our community members’ lives and putting a speed bump ahead of families as well. Those people at Eaglehawk North Primary School, Moomba Park Primary School, Murtoa College, Clunes Primary School, Hallam Primary School, Harrisfield Primary School, Kings Park Primary School and the other locations to be delivered across 2027 and 2028, including Alexandra, Avoca, Bendigo South, Casterton, Churchill – which is where I grew up ‍– Cohuna, Craigieburn, Cranbourne, Dandenong, Drouin, Foster, Rochester, Reservoir, Portarlington, Nicholson and district, Newborough, Mildura, Mickleham, Melton West and Melton South will be very disappointed to hear that people are not actually in support of this.

I will just reiterate once again, if you have not read the book by Bessel van der Kolk The Body Keeps the Score, it is a hell of an education into the way that maybe we have been treating early learning and the way that we have been diagnosing children through a certain lens in medicine when the problems can be a lot bigger. The problems can be seen not through just a medical lens but a wider health lens as well, and I think this will be a strength.

I know people in Frankston are certainly excited about this reform. It might seem obvious, but it is especially since what we have done is match a lot of these proposed centres up with primary schools, which means you have one drop-off point, one pick-up point. This is very, very important to people, especially – as I hear – in the outer west, where things can be very busy on the roads at times and two drop-offs could mean an hour out of your day or more. If you can drop your kids off and pick them up at one point, that would be much better for those people. Indeed, even in Frankston it is certainly something that we appreciate.

Again, I think one thing that we really have not spoken about enough, but it is just an amazing part of this reform, is the chance to conduct early diagnostics on children who might not be learning or might not be on the curve that we see them on usually. We can actually act on those diagnostics and do more to ensure that we lift these kids up and do not just have them in the corner. With that, Speaker, I think you can see that as a former teacher I am very, very passionate about this. I am happy to stand here and talk for another 20 minutes if it takes that, but I am sure you are going to interrupt me soon.

Business interrupted under sessional orders.